Soldiers angered over three-day deadline

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Royal Scots Borderers fly home to Edinburgh from their Afghanistan postingPA

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The soldiers have been offered a move to BelfastCathal McNaughton/Reuters

Scotland Staff

Last updated at 12:49AM, March 9 2013

Soldiers in Afghanistan have been given just three days to decide on moving to Belfast or applying for another battalion

Soldiers serving in Afghanistan were given just three days to choose between uprooting their families and leaving their battalion, it has emerged.

Troops on the front line are among 600 members of the Royal Scots Borderers, or 1 Scots, many with wives and families, who were told to move to Belfast or apply for another battalion. Leaving 1 Scots would almost certainly mean being stationed elsewhere.

The regiment, currently based at Dreghorn Barracks, Edinburgh, found out they would be moving to Northern Ireland as part of a controversial announcement by Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, earlier this week.